


The Phantom Detective Redux

by Eternal_Phantom



Category: Danny Phantom, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: And I wanted to indulge myself again, As a serious story, Begining is going to rehash a lot of The Impossible Murder, F/M, This is a rewrite of my omake series from my old ff.n account, This is one of my old self indulgent stories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26473798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternal_Phantom/pseuds/Eternal_Phantom
Summary: This isn't the first time Conan had stumbled across an impossible seeming crime scene, but it was the first he couldn't find a reasonable explanation for. And things keep getting stranger until he finds himself in an ever weirder position than being shrunk.Danny just wanted a nice quite vacation with his family. Instead Vlad had to go murder a guy and frame his Dad, the detective's kid is keeping an awfully close eye on him, and he maaaay have accidentally created another Halfa (Or Yūrei Hanyou as the kid(?) seems to have branded himself).Neither of them are completely in their own wheelhouse, but they'll need everything they got to stop a murderer from getting away with his crime.
Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton, Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Mouri Ran, Satou Miwako/Takagi Wataru
Comments: 32
Kudos: 47





	1. Redux

It would come as a surprise to many that Megure _rarely_ called Mouri Kogoro in on a case, especially given how many times the Sleeping Detective’s name appeared in Megure’s reports. The truth of the matter was it was usually Kogoro or one of his family calling in Megure, either when one of the cases he was hired for developed a dead body, or when they just happened to be somewhere a crime had taken place (which was FAR too often for Megure’s comfort).

But for this case, he was calling in any favor he could from whoever he could.

“What’s new?’ Kogoro asked cheerfully, Conan behind him and Ran doing his best to keep an eye on the child. At this point she knew Conan was staying out only to hear the details of the case before he’d run up and spy on the forensics team. They’d done this song and dance too many times to count.

“Apparently the laws of physics,” the Inspector grumbled. “Victim’s name is Segawa Hiro. He vanished without a trace two days ago. Reappeared early this morning impaled on a flag pole thirty stories up." Megure’s eyes wandered to the nearby high rise, specifically to where a flagpole had been shorn off the building. “Between what forensics and the eyewitnesses told us, he has still alive when he appeared, at least for a few minutes. He was screaming and there was blood that hit the ground. But that’s not the weirdest part.”

“It’s not?” Kogoro asked, puzzled. So far it seemed pretty weird to him.

“The injuries on his front and back are the same size as the flagpole itself,” Megure explained. “There’s no sign of drag marks on the pole and not even any indicators of which way he was impaled.”

“But that’s-”

“Impossible. Everything about this scene is impossible.” Megure huffed. “We have one suspect in custody, but we’ve got no motive, no means, and the only evidence linking him to the crime is beyond flimsy. In fact, the only thing flimsier is his and his wife’s defense that ‘The ghosts are framing him’.”

“G-ghosts?” At this Ran looked nervous.

Megure gave out a long suffering sigh. “Suspect’s name is Jack Fenton. He and his wife Maddie are, and I quote, ‘Professional Ghost Hunters’, currently on vacation with their kids. Their daughter, who seems to be the only normal one in the family, is trying to get a lawyer. Fair warning, last I heard she was looking at your wife.”

What little of Kogoro’s good mood that remained at that point vanished. If there was one person he didn’t want to be opposite of in a courtroom, it was Eri.

“What about the other one?” Conan asked.

“The other one?” Megure asked back.

“You said they had kids, that means at least one more, right?’ Conan clarified, the picture of innocence.

“A son, sixteen years old. That’s him over there.” Meguire gestured to the opposite side of the road where a caucasian teenager with _startling_ green eyes was glaring at the flagpole. “Danny ‘Don’t call him Daniel’ Fenton. He’s convinced his dad’s being framed, but won’t tell us who, if anyone, he suspects is behind it.”

“Do you think he’s involved?” Kogoro asked, narrowing his eyes. There was a lot of anger being aimed at the flagpole.

“Kid’s got the best alibi around, us.” Megure sighed before he clarified. “At the time the murder was taking place, we had a couple of uniforms trying to talk the kid out of a tree he’d been chased up by a small gaggle of Buddhist monks and Shinto priests, all of whom insisted he was a lost soul. And please don’t ask. This day has been weird enough as it is."

~

_Too far, he’s gone too far_ Danny Fenton, also known in his alternate identity as Danny Phantom, was no stranger to strong anger, especially when it came to **him**. The Mother-Son bonding stunt, the Pariah Dark invasion, turning Valerie into his own personal death wish. But this…this went above and beyond everything else the Fruitloop had done.

Someone was dead this time. Not undead, Dead-Dead.

And it wasn’t someone involved in their fights. (Should he feel guilty that he was relieved it wasn’t Sam or Tucker or Jazz?). Just some random guy Vlad had grabbed off the street. Dude probably didn’t even believe in ghosts until he was killed by one.

Danny knew this was a point of no return. He had to DO something. But what? Send Vlad to jail? He’d just turn intangible and walk out. Trap Vlad in a thermos? Probably wouldn’t take too much for one of his minions to get said thermos and set him free. Tell his Mom?

Last resort only. If it was only Danny’s secret at risk, he’d tell her in a second. But if Mom knew, she’d openly confront him and now Danny wasn’t sure if Vlad’s obsession would protect her. What if he decided if he couldn’t have her, no one could? There had to be something!

“Don’t worry, I’ll bet your dad will be cleared soon.”

“Huh?” Danny was startled out of his thoughts by the voice of a young child. One speaking (admittedly accented) English.

“Even the police think the evidence if flimsy, they just don’t have anyone else tied to the crime. And Eri Kisaki is really good, so he’ll be out in no time.”

That did sound like the name of the lawyer Jazz had been talking to. Danny would admit he wasn’t focusing his best when she told him though. “That’s great,” and he meant it, “but it doesn’t change the fact that an innocent person died because some crazed fruitloop wants to destroy my parent’s marriage.”

Conan did his best to contain his surprise. That was a _very_ specific motive. One not indicated by anything at the scene. _You know, don’t you? You know exactly who did this and how. But if that’s the case why aren’t you saying anything?_ “Who would do such a terrible thing?”

“A very bad person,” was Danny’s only response.

Well that told him exactly nothing. Wait, something was different. “How come your eyes are blue? Just a moment ago they were green.”

“It…uh…must have been a trick of the light?” Danny hadn’t realized his eyes were glowing, though honestly he wasn’t surprised, given how angry he’d been.

Conan’s eyes narrowed _. A trick of the light? No, it was the same shade both when I was standing with the others and I came over here. They didn’t turn to blue till we started talked. But why was he lying about it? Why won’t he tell the police who framed his father? And why did a bunch of monks and priests chase him up a tree._ There was too much in this case that already didn’t make sense and Danny was only adding to it.

Seeing the young boy’s eyes narrow set off Danny internal alarm. Not his ghost sense, unfortunately. He _knew_ how to deal with that. This was more a feeling of unease. “Um, I probably shouldn’t stay here too long, Jazz will worry, nicetomeetyoubye.”

_Oh, he’s not hiding anything at allllll._ The police were sufficiently distracted working the scene and Ran was sticking close to her father, so no one seemed to notice Danny’s sudden retreat, or Conan’s following him. He trailed the teenager for a few blocks when Danny suddenly looked side to side to make sure no one was watching him, then ducked into an alley.

Conan waited a few seconds to see if he came out on his own before following. The alley wasn’t a deep one, a narrow space between two buildings that ended in a brick wall about fifteen feet high.. It was marked off as a site for leaving non-burnable trash, though a collection must come through earlier today since it was empty.

Completely empty.

Despite there being no possible way out, not even a window or fire escape, there was no sign of Danny Fenton anywhere.

~

“So, how is my operation going?” Vlad Masters asked smoothly.

“As planned, sir. Jack Fenton was arrested shortly after the body was found. His daughter’s looking for a lawyer. From what I can tell she’s appealed to Kisaki, who’s highly competent, as her nickname ‘Queen of the Courtroom’ shows.”

Vlad just waved him off. “If she’s that competent, she will have enemies. No one will be too surprised if anything happens to her. Anything else?”

“Megure-Keibu has enlisted Nemuri no Kogoro to help with the case. The, um, sources you gave me have uncovered he’s…less competent than we thought. It’s the kid that travels with him, Conan, who actual solves most of the cases.” And hadn’t that been a kicker. He’d worked in Division 1 for years and never suspected a thing. Still, all this ghost business had him spooked.

Vlad still seemed unconcerned. “Then he will be dealt with. You brought me the insurance I asked for?”

The man handed him several documents. “Excellent. Here is your promised payment.” Vlad handed him a case with more money than the detective made in a year.  
  


“And that concludes our business. I trust there is nothing else?”

The man shook his head and left. A few minutes later Vlad sent a duplicate to invisibly catch up to the man, kill him, and recollect the money. It felt so satisfying getting rid of loose ends.

~

“I don’t like this Jazz. Plasmius never killed before.”

“That we know of little brother.” reminded Jazz over his phone. “Let’s face it, Vlad’s been doing the villain thing for over twenty years. We’ve only been paying attention the last two.”

“Thanks Jazz, I feel loads better.” Danny rolled his eyes.

“I aim to please. So find out anything useful inviso-snooping around the scene.” Jazz prodded.

“Not really.” Danny admitted the fact that he was far from fluent in Japanese wasn’t helping, so he was going off what few words he knew and body language. “Thankfully the police seem to agree the evidence against Dad’s crap, but they have no other leads. There’s this detective who’s supposed to be a hotshot, but he’s not acting the part. Of course that might be because the case is _literally_ impossible. And to be honest, Conan is worrying me.”

“Conan?” Jazz asked.

“I think he’d the detective’s son? He’s…he’s sharp. He only talked to me for like, a second, but I think he knew I knew more than I was telling. He had this look like he saw right through me to Phantom and Plasmius and everything.”

“The detective’s son, huh? Is he around your age.” Jazz wondered.

“He’s seven. Maybe eight?” Silence met Danny from the other end of the phone. “What?”

“Methinks you’re getting a tad paranoid, brother dear,” Jazz said in a teasing tone.

His retort dies on his lips when Danny felt the now familiar cold feeling in his throat that lead to a wisp of blue-tinted breath escaping. “Ghost stuff, might be a lead. Gotta go Jazz.” Danny hung up his phone and secured it in his suit. “Paranoid, hah! Just means I’m catching on.”

~

Conan was uncharacteristically quiet as he followed Ran around as she picked up the ingredients for tonight’s meal. This case bothered him. A lot. Usually he could find some clue. Some hint of method. But everything both he and the police found pointed to one conclusion - that this murder was physically impossible.

“Hey Conan,” Ran broke his chain of thought. “You don’t think Segawa-san was _really_ killed by ghosts do you?”

He quickly slipped into his ‘little kid’ act. “Of course not Ran-neechan. Ghosts don’t exist.” He gave her a wide smile that was far more cheery than he felt.

“That’s right,” she smiled, but her voice was still a little shaky.

Conan wished he had some bit of logic to appease her. Ran, brave in the face of almost any opponent, quickly lost her nerve when anything seemingly supernatural appeared. He knew the only way he could truly comfort her was to prove the supernatural had nothing to do with the case, which was normally a much easier task.

The memory of the empty alley where Danny Fenton should have been ghosted through his mind. _Ghosts don’t exist_ he reminded himself harshly.

He was broken out of his thoughts, though, at a sudden strange sound. Ran snatched him up and pulled him to the side. Where he had stood was suddenly a scorch mark. Conan swung his head to the side and saw…a robot…with a green fiery mohawk?

Ran tucked him behind her and slipped into one of her karate stances. Apparently robots weren’t one of the things that scared her enough not to fight back.

The robot merely grinned. “Step aside wench. I only want the child.”

Ran hunkered down into her stance. “If you want Conan-kun, you have to go through me.” she declared, much to Conan’s horror.

The robot seemed unperturbed. “Fine by me.” It moved forward and Ran lashed out with a vicious kick. But instead of a hard metallic surface it felt like her leg only interacted with cold air.

_Is it a hologram?_ Conan wondered. That seemed the most logical explanation, but it wouldn’t explain the scorched sidewalk.

Ran tried a second kick, but this time the robot caught her foot. With little to no effort he flung her away. She slammed against the building with a **thud** and didn’t get up.

“R-Ran-neechan!” Conan hurried over to her. It didn’t look like anything was broken, but there was a bump on her head he didn’t like the look of. “How could you do this to her?”

“Such is the fate of any who interferes with Skulker’s hunt.” The robot lifted his arm where some strange gun was protruding. “Nothing personal, runt, but my employer considers you a threat.”

“B-but I’m just a kid.” There was no reason anyone should think otherwise. Who was the employer of the guy who built the robot (Skulker?) and what did he do to get targeted by him?

“It matters not. Once I accept a hunt I complete it. Farewell.” The gun lit up, making the same noise he heard before. Conan closed his eyes, wishing he had inched away from Ran while he was talking to the robot’s controller. Now if he dodged Ran would be hit. _Ran, I’m sorry._

There was the sound of something being hit and Conan flinched before realizing he was unharmed. He opened his eyes and saw some kind of green shield between them and the robot.

“Reduced to picking on little kids, Skulker?” a vaguely familiar voice asked.

_No way_

Danny shot a quick glance behind him, mentally kicking himself for not getting there before the girl was hurt. But still, this pretty much confirmed his suspicion that something was up with Conan, if Vlad had sent his favorite attack dog. “So what’s the deal, Skulker? This kid has a lollipop and you wanted it?”

“This does not concern you, Whelp. Though I eagerly anticipate the reckoning between us, for today at least, you are not my prey. Stand aside.”

Danny dropped the shield, but began charging an ectoblast in his hand. “You know I can’t do that.”

“Then I gladly welcome the chance to add your pelt to my collection.” Skulker charged forward, a blade popping out of the other arm.

“Bring it!” Danny ducked under him and fired the ectoblast into Skulkers chest, knocking him upward. Danny quickly followed.

“Ha! Is that pitiful little blast the best you can do?” Skulker taunted.

“You’re the last person to call someone else little, froggy.” Danny returned the quip along with a sold hit.

Skulker growled, he despised his true form being known. His rage was interrupted by a beeping from his suit _Warning. Incoming can of beans_. Both Danny and Skulker shared a confused look before said can slammed into Skulker’s head. Conan stood below next to an overturned grocery bag, sneaker crackling with electricity and an absolutely vicious look on his face.

A second ectoblast right where the can had hit seemed to damage Skulker’s navigation system as the hunter went spiraling off. Danny gave a small sigh of relief and hoped a second can wasn’t going to be aimed at his head

“Is she okay?” He asked landing beside them. “Do you have somewhere safe we can take her?”

“We’re not that far from Hakase’s, but I’d rather get her to a hospital.” Conan admitted, concern filling his voice.

Danny bit his lip. _Some hero I am_ “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I’m-”

“Danny Fenton. We met earlier at the crime scene.”

Danny reared back as though struck. How? No one else had figured it out. Before he could even try to deny it something out of the corner of his eye had him pushing Conan out of the way, the blade aimed at the kid’s heart instead slicing Danny’s upper arm.

“Don’t underestimate me, Whelp.” Skulker growled. His flight navigation may have been fried, but he had no issues disabling it. “Our fight is far from done.”

“I’ll give you the fight of your afterlife, but let me get this girl some help first. She’s not a part of this.”

“New orders, I’m afraid. Plasmius has decided she’s seen too much.” Skulker grinned, “I must say, Ghost Child, I look forward to hearing your screams as I removed that mouthy head from your shoulders.”

Danny’s face snarled. “Fine, you want a scream, Skulker? I’ll give you a **SCREAM** ”

Conan clamped his hands over his ears at the sound that came from Danny’s throat. Scream seemed an understatement. It sounded like the cry of a damned soul, writhing in torment, but a hundred times louder. The force of the scream not only knocked the robot back, but chunks of it began to fall off.

The longer he held it, through, the more Danny’s appearance began to change, the white hair fading into black, the strange black clothes changing to what he wore that day.

Finally the sound stopped and Danny, now completely back to normal, slumped over unconscious. Conan looked between him, Ran, and the destroyed robot. “Now what am I supposed to do?”  
  


~

Danny awoke to semi-darkness. If he’d been completely human it would have been pitch black, but his eyesight need no time to adjust to darkness. He sat up, wincing as his weight shifted onto his injured arm. To his surprise he found it tightly bandaged, though the bandages were stained both dark green and red. It didn’t look like Jazz’s handiwork. The red blood along with the bare arm told him something else important. He had changed back.

This was not good.

“You’re finally awake,” said a voice behind him. A voice he was beginning to recognize as much as dread.

“Uh, hey Conan, right?” Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Um, how’s your friend?”

Conan reached over and clicked on the bedside lamp. Unlike darkness the sudden light, though dim, hurt Danny’s eyes. "She’s at the hospital.” Conan’s tone was neutral, almost painfully so. “It was only a slight concussion, thankfully, but they wanted to keep her there overnight. Your sister’s there as well.”

“ ** _WHAT!?_** ” It was all Danny could do not to levitate out of the bed. He’d thought Skulker would be out of commission longer. Or did Plasmius have someone else on his payroll? How long had he been out anyway?

“She’s fine, but they wanted her to have a once over just to be sure. Some lowlifes tried to jump her and Kisaki-san, though which one was the target is currently unclear. The thugs will be booked as soon as the doctors are finished with them.” Both women, it seemed, were vicious fighters, something the mooks had been very unprepared for.

Danny let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Jazz was safe. He then turned to the boy in with him. He’d been freaking out at the crime scene and hadn’t been paying as close attention. He’d pegged Conan as seven or eight, but looking at him he was even younger. Except for the eyes. His eyes were somehow older than the rest of him and sharp as a knife. Not helping the matter was how Conan was holding still, no fidgeting or kicking or anything. Something no ordinary child was capable of.

_Ha_. If Conan were an ordinary child, he’d eat the specter deflector.

“What are you?” Danny asked. He wasn’t a ghost, at least. His Ghost Sense hadn’t pinged once. But while the existence of ghosts made it far more likely other things existed as well, Danny had no idea what those things might be.

Conan laughed humorlessly, “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

Danny flinched at the response. He didn’t know how much Conan had seen, but that answer was at least ‘enough’. Unbidden, Spectra’s words came back to him _What are you? A ghost trying to fit in with human? Or a creepy little boy with creepy little powers?_ He may have had a word for what he was now, but he felt he was no closer to an answer. “I don’t suppose we could say you didn’t notice anything weird about me, I didn’t notice anything weird about you, and we go our separate ways?"

“No” Conan’s answer was swift, and not a little angry. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I know someone died for it. And for some reason the culprit has targeted me, and by association Ran. Do you have any idea how hard I’ve been trying to keep that from happening! Your own father is in jail and you’re protecting this guy!”

Danny’s eyes lit up green. Conan scooted back at both the light and the pure anger it contained. “I’m not ‘protecting’ anyone.” Danny snarled “What am I supposed to do? Go up to the nearest cop and say 'Excuse me officer. That man was killed by Vlad Masters. That’s right, Vlad Masters, international billionaire. Proof? No sir, I have no proof since he used his ghost powers to do it. Yes ghost powers, he’s half ghost you see. No sir, I haven’t been been doing drugs.’ It’s not that I don’t want to stop him; I’d do almost anything to. I just …can’t.” Danny deflated, the feeling of defeat causing the glow to fade from his eyes. He hated admitting it, but it was the truth. When it came to stopping Vlad, he had nothing.

“I…I know a little of what that’s like,” Conan quietly admitted. “I’m in what I guess you can call a self imposed witness protection program. I saw something I wasn’t supposed to. The only saving grace is the people who caught me think I’m dead. New name, new appearance,” Okay, he hadn’t wanted the new appearance, but he used it. “New identity. Only one person in Japan from my old life knows who I am. I’ve done such a good job of erasing myself, I see my old best friend everyday. She doesn’t know it’s me.” He couldn’t help the bit of bitterness that snuck into his voice. “I can’t let anyone know, not till they’re caught. But I don’t even know where to _look_.”

Danny could feel a bit of empathy stirring up over feeling helpless. But he was still missing the important part. “Why is Vlad so threatened by you? I mean no offense, but you sound pretty human.”

Conan narrowed his eyes. “Of course I’m human, what else would I be?”

“I don’t know, a ghost? I mean, you don’t feel like one, but I’ve got nothing else. C Student here.”

“Ghosts don’t exist.” Conan folded his arms and waited for a more reasonable answer.

Wow, it had been _quite_ a while since Danny had heard someone say that. “Of course they do. What did you think Skulker was?”

“Skulker, that’s what the person operating the robot called himself, right?. You two seemed to know each other.” Conan noted.

“Not the first time he’s been sent after me. And he’s not a robot. Well, he sort of is, but not entirely.” He was having a hard enough time convincing him of ‘ghost’, he wasn’t going for ‘tiny ghost piloting a human sized mech suit’.

“And you mentioned ‘Ghost Powers’ in your explanation. Those are linked to your parents inventions?” Conan questioned. He had been able to find some files on the Fentons. Most of it was madness, but their inventive ability couldn’t be denied.

Damn, that was the perfect get out of jail free card for what Conan had seen. But he couldn’t take it. Plasmius had already killed one person and was gunning for this kid. He needed to understand what he was up against and take the threat seriously. Danny put Conan’s hand on his chest. “What do you feel?”

  
  
“Your shirt? A heartbeat?’ Conan was seriously beginning to think that Jazz was the only sane Fenton. Though the heartbeat didn’t feel right. Far too slow. Maybe they did need to get Danny to a hospital after all.

“That last one’s the one I needed. Going Ghost!” The familiar white ring formed at his waist and split, moving up and down. As it passed over his chest Conan yanked his hand away, but the light came with it, staying on his fingertips.

Danny reached out to grab Conan’s hand, to make him feel his lack of pulse, before realizing said hand was glowing too. “What’s going on?”

“That’s what I want to know!” Conan shook his hand as if to swing to glow away, but it remained, climbing up his arm faster and faster. “What did you do to me?!”

“I don’t know,” Danny tried to catch the flailing arm. “I’ve transformed tons of time, including while touching people, and this never happened.”

“Well make it stop!” The glow reached his chest and quickly subsumed the rest of his body. Then with a flash it was gone, but the person standing there was very different from the one prior.

The most jarring difference was his age, much closer to Danny’s than Conan’s. The clothes were different too. Light brown pants, a blue shirt, and a jacket that could generously be called purple, though it really looked more pink to Danny. But it was the familiar things that were the most horrifying, because they were things he had seen in a mirror. White hair. Luminous green eyes. Full body glow.

“What-” Conan - no _Shinichi_ asked, his voice echoing strangely. “What did you do to me?!”

Before Danny could answer the door opened and an older Japanese man in a labcoat came in. “Cona-Shinichi-kun?! Dō shita no?”

“Shiranai,” Shinichi sat down hard, “Danny wa nanika shita.”

The older guy looked at Danny expectantly, as did a small girl with a piercing glare he hadn’t notice before hiding behind him.

“Um, is this a good time to point out I don’t speak Japanese?” Danny asked nervously.

“The Professor wants to know what happened,” Like Conan the little girl spoke with an accent, but a much more slight one. “And he said you did something.”

“Nothing that sound have cause _that_.” Danny protested. “I just wanted him to realize I didn’t have a pulse, not make him like me.”

Shinichi’s brain had never been slow. Facts fit together easily as puzzle pieces, even if he didn’t really like the conclusion. And right now the facts connecting were ‘like me’ and ‘didn’t have a pulse’. Tentatively he reach his hand and pressed two fingers to the side of this throat and waited. And waited.

Letting out a panicked keening noise, Shinichi reached for the pulse point on his wrist, than finally put his hand over where his heart should be. Nothing. Literally nothing. He couldn’t feel anything, not even the rise and fall-

It was at that moment Shinichi realized he wasn’t breathing either.

“Shinichi-kun?” Agasa worriedly put his hand on Shinichi’s shoulder, only for his fingers to slip through.

This wasn’t a hologram or illusion. He could feel the fingers _inside_ his shoulder. The panicked keening turned into a full on scream. Then a strange staticy feeling like when the light touched him flashed through him again and he was back to Conan.

“I have no idea with the age shifting.” Danny added. Although honestly the way Conan talked, he acted more like the older age of his ghost form.

Conan didn’t respond to Danny, wasn’t even paying attention to him. Instead he returned his hand to his neck, hoping that now that he was back to ‘normal’ his pulse would be back. _Ba………bump………Ba………bump_. There, but like Danny’s it was slow. Too slow for him to be conscious, much less functioning. And yet he felt perfectly fine. “What are you? What are we?”

Danny swallowed as his mouth went dry. He didn’t want to explain things, honestly, but Conan needed to know now even more than a few minutes ago. Maybe it would be better without the other kid and the old man, but they’d seen too much to leave them out. “Half ghosts. Yes, ghosts are real, but outside of certain locations finding one that has enough power to even interact with humans is really rare.”

“How can someone be _half_ ghost? Death is an absolute.” Conan said. His mind was still railing against the thought, but his transformation had been one impossibility too far for him to ignore.

“We’re not dead.” Danny said, almost too quickly. “We’re mutants, I guess is the best word. Not counting you, because I have no idea how you happened, half-ghosts are made by someone being caught in the opening of a stable portal to the Ghost Zone.”

“Ghost zone?” the girl asked him in disbelief.

“Limbo? Call it what you want, it’s the extraplanar area where ghosts and spirits reside. They can pass through to the living world through portals. Natural portals aren’t uncommon, but are unstable and temporary. Man made portals are permanent, but not exactly safe. Getting caught in the initial energy blast of one opening makes you kind of a hybrid. You gain a ghost form and ghost powers even in your living form.”

He had a living and a dead form. Conan really wasn’t sure what to think of that. “What kind of traits.”

“Well, you already found intangibility. That, invisibility, and flight are the standard three all ghosts have. After that all ghosts develop different ones.” Danny explained.

Conan closed his eyes. “Flight to reach the flagpole. Invisibility to make sure no one saw him. Intangibility to place him in the middle of the pole without leaving drag marks. That’s how Segawa Hiro died, isn’t it?”

Danny gulped, his face paling. “That’s…yeah most likely.”

“You said Vlad Masters had these traits, he’s like us.” saying that still made Conan’s insides squirm.

“The first.” Danny verified.”Twenty years more experience than me and powerful in sadly every definition of the word.”

His voice turned bitter and Conan could understand why. He’d heard of Vlad Masters, of course, and knew the man wielded social and financial power like a samurai wielded a blade. Adding in literal supernatural powers and an obsession with Danny’s mother and he could understand why Danny felt the situation was hopeless. This was certainly beyond anything he knew how to handle.

Without warning Conan found himself falling through his chair. He yelped and Danny caught him before he passed through the floor.

“Just focus on being solid,” the senior halfa advised. “The first month or so is gonna be a little rough on control. It sucks, I know.” Once Conan was satisfactorily solid he placed him back in the chair.”You’ll have a bit more control in your ghost form, but at this point it takes a lot of effort and practice to hold it for any length of time.

That made a certain sense, as much as any of this did. The powers were ‘natural’ to that form. This wasn’t going away, was it? “Holmes said ‘The world is big enough for us, ghosts need not apply.” Conan muttered

Danny heard him and snorted. “Yeah, well Holmes also said something about finding the truth by eliminating the impossible, and let me tell you - in between fighting giant monsters made of meat and getting shrunk to the size of a mouse, the word ‘impossible’ kinda loses all meaning.”


	2. A New Reality

This felt like a joke. It had to be a joke. Whether he was Kudo Shinichi or Edogawa Conan he was logical. He never fell for tricks pretending to be supernatural entities. 

So how in Enma’s name had he _become_ a supernatural entity?!

It didn’t even make sense. _Half_ ghost? Some sort of undead hanyou? But for all it didn’t make sense, it was true. He only needed to feel his own too-slow pulse to confirm. Not to mention his connection to the physical world had become very tenuous, often slipping through chairs or even losing articles of clothing. And even one terrifying moment when he’d tried to boost himself up to see something on Hakase’s computer, only for his feet to keep going up.

It made sense for him to spend the night at Agasa’s. Kogoro was going to be focused on Ran in the hospital and it wouldn’t do for people to see him before he got a handle on this. But it smarted. He wanted to go visit Ran, he knew seeing her ‘little brother’ would cheer her up, but not when his body was behaving like something out of a horror movie.

And the biggest irony, the kicker to it all, apparently he could become Shinichi whenever he wanted. But at price of being fully undead. Usually he bullrushed towards any chance to be his true self, and now he had one that finally disturbed him too much to use. 

At least Haibara was too distracted by these turns of events to comment on it. (He knew better than to assume she grew a sense of tact). He was sure she’d have some choice barbs, and he wasn’t ready to hear them.

He’d been trying to find more information on Vlad Masters when a strange feeling came over him. He gave himself a quick look over to make sure he was completely visible and tangible. He was, but had no clue what the new feeling was.

He turned back to the computer when something dropped on the keyboard. He looked down to see and a few more drops fell from his face. Tears? He didn’t feel the usual pressure behind his eyes crying brought, but there did seem to be tears coming from his eyes. He wiped them away, then curiously licked it. It tasted like water, not salty like tears should be. What on earth was-

Conan’s train of thought was cut short when when he was suddenly grabbed from behind. Even worse whatever had grabbed him had kept going up. He caught a brief glimpse of Hakase and Haibara entering the room just as he disappeared through the ceiling.

Conan turned around and tried to get a good look at his captor. It was a giant green bird with glowing red eyes. His mind tried to reject what he was seeing, but his survival instincts were in control now. He flailed away at the creature’s leg till it dropped him.

He had failed to take into account how high up he was. He began to fall, but seemed to stutter in the air. It kept him alive long enough for the bird to grab him again. 

“Oi, keep settled down there,” the bird chided. “You falling’s just going to kill you faster and cause a mess for the boss to clean up.”

Of course it talked.

He had to think. He was being kidnapped and from what the bird said, with intent to kill. He had to get away quickly, but not by falling to his death. Flying was an option now, loathe as he was to admit it. But he wasn’t sure he could control his own flight. He had yet to do it on purpose, and that hesitant falling he was doing before wasn’t going to get him away from anything.

Danny had said he’d have the most control when transformed. He didn’t know how much, but it was his best, maybe only chance. He focuses everything on being Shinichi. On his longing for his real body. The same feeling that had happened yesterday when the ring of light traveled from Danny to him. It felt cold and strange, but he had to hold onto it. 

The bird’s talon lost its grip on him as he more than doubled in size. “You’re….hey, no one said anything about this!”

Shinichi didn’t answer, but instead swung his now much longer leg around and clocked the bird on the head. _Okay the three common powers are flight, invisibility, and intangibility. I may not be able to do anything else, but I can probably manage those._

He had knocked the bird away, but it probably had significantly more flight experience. An aerial chase was not in his favor. Instead he decided to try invisibility. He flickered a bit, but didn’t fade fast enough, before his captor tried to grab him. He managed to shove himself away and without realizing it phased through a wall into a building.

He forced himself through the floor as well, hoping to buy himself some time to really focus on being invisible. He brought to mind stakeouts and tailing suspects. Times he didn’t want to be seen. He could only hope it worked. The last thing he wanted was to freak out because he was doing something impossible. He could do that later, Right now he had to survive.

He wasn’t sure how long he waited, huddled in the building. Long after he heard the bird move away, presumably assuming he had flown away himself. But he didn’t want to give himself away if it was still close. A strong feeling of exhaustion began into creep in his bones. He had to get away. To get somewhere safe.

  
He stumbled out of the building, not phasing through. The last thing he wanted was more attention. He knew he looked strange, but hopefully anyone who saw him would think it was some weird fashion choice. He just needed to find somewhere to rest.

“ _Shinichi_!”

He head shot up and he looked into the eyes of perhaps one of the last people he wanted to see at this moment. One person who would not only recognize him on sight, but also how wrong his appearance was.

He opened his mouth, trying to find some lie, some explanation he could give her. _Something_ to explain this. But nothing came out as he reached his limit and darkness overcame him. If there was one small mercy for him, it was that he was completely unaware that, as he passed out, he had changed back into Conan.


	3. Chapter 3

“Vultures, that’s definitely Vlad’s work.” Danny glared at the ceiling. He wished the little girl who also spoke English had told him that over the phone. He could have been flying around trying to find them instead of wasting time getting here. 

In all of the mess of last night with him accidently turning Conan into a halfa (and wasn’t THAT unsettling? Was that a new power he could just do? Could Vlad?), he’d never gotten a clear answer as to why Vlad was after Conan.

Like, yeah the kid was scary smart, but Danny hadn’t realized it until he’d spoken to him and as far as he’d known Vlad hadn’t. And his initial guess that it was because he was the detective's son (in an attempt to blackmail said detective) was dashed by Conan admitting he was under a ‘witness protection program’. He doubted Vlad wouldn’t have done the research to show that.

He needed to find some way to keep him safe, but most of the methods he knew for keeping malevolent ghosts out weren’t exactly safe for Halfa use. Which Conan was now for unknown reasons.

He could think about that later. Right now he needed to track the vultures, save his fellow Halfa and-

His train of thought was interrupted by the door slamming open and the girl he had saved yesterday from Skulker storming in with Conan in her arms. She did not look happy.

This was borne out as she began yelling at them in Japanese, only for the small girl to say something involving his name.

“I don’t speak Japanese, but I am _very_ fluent in being thrown under the bus.” Danny said with a mild glare as the angry girl turned on him.

~

The short walk to the Professor’s (it hadn’t been very far) had given Ran more than enough time to build up a heady steam of indignation. As much as she wanted to shake Conan- _Shinichi_ and demand answers, she couldn’t do that right now. He wasn’t waking up, which scared her and fed her anger even more.

Shinichi had been lying to her. And Agasa had been helping him. And if one couldn’t give her answers, the other would.

She barely stopped to kick off her shoes as she marched in the door. The Professor was there with Ai-chan and someone she didn’t know. In any other circumstance, she’d be more discrete, but she was done.

“Hakase, **why did I just see Shinichi turn into Conan**? Why did he look so strange? What else have you been keeping from me?” 

Everyone in the room looked at her in shock. Surprisingly, it was Ai-chan who spoke first. “Danny did something weird to him. We don’t understand what.” ‘Danny’ glared at her and said something in English. That was all the impetus Ran needed to turn on him. “What did you do to Shinichi?”

He responded in English again. Ran wasn’t doing badly in her lessons, but he spoke too fast and she was too flustered to translate.

Cona-Shinichi held protectively in her arms, she lashed out with her right leg. The boy ducked back, still shouting in English. Ran shifted her weight and struck again. 

The kick _should_ have smacked him in the head, if not for the fact that his head detached from his shoulders, floating half a foot above. There were twin thuds as Ran misstepped her landing and Haibara fell to the floor in a dead faint. Agasa didn’t look much better himself.

Danny reached up, grabbed his head, and pulled it back onto his shoulders. Conan was still out cold and the only other English speaker had fainted. Great.

He looked to the Professor in a silent plea for help while the kicky girl just looked at him in terror. The Professor looked at him with a bit of fear in his eyes, but he turned to the girl and began to speak. Danny only hoped they were friendly words.

~

"Ran-kun, I know was Danny-kun did was scary," And wasn't that underestimation. As much impossible as he had seen in the past day, that took things one step too far. "But he has been trying to help fix whatever it is he did."

"H-He's a monster!" Ran stammered, clutching Shinichi tighter to her.

Agasa winced. Not just for Danny's sake, but for Shinichi's as well. At least he hadn't been awake to hear it. "Danny-kun's not normal, it's true. But that doesn't make him evil."

"What is he?"

"A yūrei hanyou. At least that's as close a translation as Shinichi-kun and I got." Not much use in hiding that little tidbit when she'd seen him transform.

"You mean yōkai hanyou. A yūrei hanyou doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't and that's driven Shinichi-kun up the wall." Once quite literally. He'd paced to the end of the room and had gotten halfway up a wall before realizing what was happening. Gravity had temporarily reasserted itself, only for him to catch himself mid-fall, levitating a few inches above the floor before falling the rest of the way. But it didn't seem like a good idea to mention it at the moment. "That's the best translation we have though. Danny-kun doesn't speak Japanese."

Ran turned her attention to the harmless looking boy she's just seen decapitate himself. He was a monster and he'd done _something_ to Shinichi, but apparently was trying to help? She needed answers so badly, but didn't think her English comprehension was good enough to understand them. She thought for a moment and cradling Shinichi in one arm she pulled out her phone. She typed a few moments then held up the screen for him to see. On one side was Japanese, on the other the words 'What did you do to him' 

He looked at the screen then pulled his own phone out of his pocket and began typing before showing her 'I think he absorbed some of my ectoprism. I don't know how. It's never happened before.' 

Ectoprism? Okay she didn't know that word. And somehow Shinichi absorbed it? 'What is ectoprism?' 

Danny assumed she meant ectoplasm. 'Basically the essence of ghosts. The accident pushed a lot into my DNA.' 

Ran felt a shiver down her spine at the idea of 'Ghost Essense' being shoved into someone's genetics. 'What kind of accident' She regretted it a moment later when he saw her question and just looked sad and uncomfortable. 

He was claiming to be part ghost, was she asking about his death? Was that a taboo subject? Somehow the question 'Are you dead?' didn't seem any better. So she switched her question. 'How did you make Shinichi a child?' 

He stared at her phone, but this time just looked confused. He fumbled with his phone a bit. 'What is a shinichi?'

She gave him a look and pointed at the child she was holding. He typed back and showed her 'Conan is a shinichi? I don't know why he was older. It was weird. Maybe it's because he's an adult for his age?

That gave Ran pause. Danny's answers had all been about ghostly things, none of it about Shinichi deaging. And the fact that he didn't seem to know his real name was even a name... "Hakase?" Ran asked in a dangerously sweet voice. "Is there a reason Danny-san, who I was just told was responsible for this, doesn't know Shinichi's real name, and in fact seems to think Conan-kun somehow aged up into Shinichi?" 

"Ah well, that is to say, the part Danny-kun's responsible for, that only happened last night." Agasa definitely looked nervous as he helped Ai onto her bed. 

Her eyes narrowed. "Okay, then why don't you tell me the rest of the story."

~

Well apparently whatever he'd said had been enough to turn her attention to the Professor. She was still mad, but not at him, so good? He had no idea what was going on, though. 

He wished he had someone with him that could help him explain and spoke Japanese and English and... Danny smacked himself in the face then hit a contact number on his phone. "Jazz, are you free? I need some help?" 

"Kisaki-san is talking to Mom so sure. Is this about Vlad?" 

"Kinda, but not really." Danny sighed. "So Vlad's been targeting this kid I thought was the detective's son-" 

"The one you thought could see right through you?" 

"...Yes, and you will understand once you meet him, but that's not the problem. The problem is I...kinda turned him into a halfa last night." 

There was silence on the other end, then "*What? Danny what the actual fu- _w_ ** _HAT DID YOU DO_** **????** ”

"I just _touched_ him Jazz. And it was like my transformation ring spread like fire over him." Danny ran a hand through his hair. "And now someone I think is his older sister is here, and I'm using google translate to try and explain, and there's something else going on she's mad at this professor guy over and...Jazz I need help." He heard her sigh over the phone. 

"Send me your address, I'll be right there."

Danny hung up and texted her the number. He looked over to the girl and Professor, they were talking about something, something that seemed serious. Also that word shinichi kept popping up. It had something to do with Conan, and he really wished he could find a translation.

~

The more Agasa talked, the more Ran wanted to scream. She felt hurt, used. She looked at the child who wasn't still wrapped in her arms. She wanted to rage at him, but he still wouldn't wake up and that kept an undercurrent of worry beneath all her anger. 

"Was this all just a game to him? A joke I was too stupid to figure out?" 

"Ran-kun no he..." Agasa looked at the still unconscious Shinichi. "You've never seen the back and forth. It's torture. He used to scream..." Agasa shut his eyes. In a way he hated that Shinichi had become so used to the pain he didn't anymore. “There was a very real chance each transformation would kill him. As it is, he has permanent heart damage, barring this whole ghost thing that none of us understand." 

"If Shinichi-kun were truly selfish, he could have started over. Left everything behind and began a new life. That would have been the smartest thing he could have done. But he clung to the one thing that made his old life worth keeping. He clung to you, because you were the most important thing he has. And he'd rather face death then leave you behind. He never took a cure without the intent to see you."

But Agasa was wrong. She _had_ heard the screams. In the diplomat’s house, and after the case where Shinichi was being impersonated. She’s always convinced herself they were nothing, since nothing appeared to be wrong afterwards, but that sound had shaken her.

_And Shinichi was still Shinichi after that last incident, which meant after being in that pain he’d immediately gone through it again_

“How are you sure? About the heart damage?” Ran asked quietly.

Agasa was quiet for a moment. “Ai-kun had a bad cold and started to feel pain in her stomach. The doctor wanted to do an ultrasound to check her organs, but she was scared, so Conan volunteered.” He didn’t mention that this had been carefully orchestrated. Not the illness or the kidney infection, but when Ai realized she might get an ultrasound she got the idea to give them a chance to check Shinichi’s internal organs in a way she normally couldn’t.

If the technician hadn’t been focused on the frightened little girl and looking at the screen when she held the scanner over Shinichi’s chest…

“I saw the scarring myself, on the ultrasound screen.” Agasa was very solemn. “He’s been cut off from the temporary cures since, but with so much damage already done-”

“Dai-job-boo-dee-sooka?”

They turned and saw Danny, looking at his screen. He was frowning as though he knew the pronunciation of whatever he was trying to say was off. Finally just turned his phone around so they could see what he was trying to say. Daijōbu desu ka _Are you okay?_

No, she was very much not okay. She fumbled for a moment with her own phone, now even less willing to put him down. ‘Conan’s heart is hurt’

Danny frowned. The kid was a bit young for romantic heartache so - oh. Oh no.

His face must have given something away, because her eyes narrowed. ‘What’

‘I had a bad idea’ he typed back. He didn’t want to say more, but the look she gave him demanded it. ‘Ectoplasm should not affect a normal person, but if he was probably very close to death’

The response hit Ran in the gut harder than any of the blows she’d taken during her matches. Whatever Danny had done to Shinichi had happened because Shinichi was _dying_. And he was dying because he refused to give her up.

A sudden knocking at the door startled them all. Danny brightened and ran for the door. 

Ran and Agasa shared a confused look.

Danny came back with a young woman with bright red hair. "Hello, you must be Conan's older sister." The girl said in clear, but accented Japanese. "My name's Jazz, Danny's my little brother, he called me to help." 

"Your brother?" Ran asked, even as she inwardly shrunk at the reminder of Danny still being under the misconception she had been until not to long ago. "Are you...like him?" 

"One hundred percent normal human, if that's what you're asking." Jazz reassured. "But I've been helping my brother adapt for the past years, so I'm very familiar with what's going on." Of course the early days were her weak spot, as she hadn't known till about two months later, and hadn't been let in on everything till the stupid test incident. 

"Do you know why he won't wake up?" Ran asked in a small voice. 

Jazz asked Danny something in English, then nodded and turned her attention back to Ran. "Basically his system didn't have the ectoplasm reserves for what he tried to pull off to escape the creature that kidnapped him-" 

The what that did what now? How many loops was she being left out of?

"-and his body strained itself trying to maintain. He'll sleep until his ectoplasm levels are back at a safe amount. The first time Danny tried pulling a stunt like that, he was out for four hours." 

"His ectoplasm levels? I don't understand. Danny-san said that he'd absorbed some ghost-essence from him but..." 

Jazz pinched her nose. "Right. Google translate. Okay, so normally ectoplasm, the 'Ghost-Essence', has no effect on humans whatsoever. But there are rare cases that involve a lot of ectoplasm and a fair amount of electricity that can alter a human body to the point where their mitochondria start creating it instead of the usual oxygen based chemical energy. This causes the person to exhibit certain ghost-like traits."

"Yūrei hanyou." Ran whispered. 

"In a nutshell." Jazz agreed, making note of the term. She'd take it over halfa, if for no other reason that Vlad must have approved of the term for it to be bandied about so much. 

And now Ran understood what Danny had done. No wonder he'd had trouble explaining it, the concept shouldn't exist. This wasn't some one and done magical side effect of absorbing some ectoplasm from Danny, something that shouldn't have even happened if he hadn't been dying by inches. 

Co-Shinichi was in the process of _becoming_ a yūrei hanyou. That's why he'd looked so strange as Shinichi. Unbidden, every scary story about people becoming monsters flooded her mind. No. No she could not focus on that because obviously it wasn't true. Danny still had a close connection to his human family. His big sister had stood by him, she'd have to too. 

(Though she had no idea how to define her relationship to him at the moment)

"I can answer any questions you have, but we might want to wait until he wakes up, I'm sure he has a bunch too." Jazz continued on, unaware of all the thoughts running through Ran's head. 

"He speaks English, wouldn't Danny have-"

Jazz let out a frustrated puff of air. "Oh I have no doubt brother dearest _tried_ explaining. But Danny's not," she glanced at her brother, "he's not the most adept at explaining things even when they're not deeply personal and he's not panicking all over the place, which it seems is what he's been doing. Not that he doesn't have reason. This nice family vacation has turned into a cluster." She sighed deeply. "But one thing I really need to impress is how important this is to keep a secret." 

Ran felt something dark curdle in her stomach. That sounded enough like what Agasa-hakase had been saying to bring the bitter feeling back. "Why?" 

Jazz clenched her hand worriedly. "Are you familiar with a law in America called the Anti-Ecto Act? It basically states that 'Ectoplasmic Entities', despite being sentient and sapient, are not living people and don't the same - or any- inalienable rights. And they don't differentiate between yūrei hanyou and true ghosts."

"If Danny was discovered, he'd be taken to a government facility. The Agents were boasting about all the painful experiments they were going to perform on him. Thankfully Danny convinced them they were wrong about him." She certainly wasn't going to go into the magic artifact with mind wiping capacity. 

“But for a short time we had proof of how people would react to a yūrei hanyou's existence. Those that knew him stood by him, but..to anyone else, he was just a monster, a threat. And I don't know if Japan has an equivalent to the Anti-Ecto Act, but I do know that you place a greater emphasis on conformity than America does. And yūrei hanyou definitely break that mold." 

Ran wanted to argue that Shinichi had never conformed to anything, not since preschool when he'd accused the teacher of trying to do something terrible to her. But she knew the difference between excelling and nonconforming, and the truth was Shinichi excelled, physically and mentally. 

This was very different. If word got out Conan was Shinichi, these mysterious people in Black Clothes would kill him. If word got out he was a yūrei hanyou, his life would be effectively over. It felt like balancing on the edge of a knife. Shinichi standing on tiptoe, trying to avoid falling into ruin. "How did your parents take it?" 

Jazz's expression darkened. "Our parents' work was instrumental in helping draft the Anti-Ecto Act."

"What? How could they?" 

"They don't _know_. Danny always insisted if they did, they'd change. They'd love him anyways. But it's been two years and he hasn't told them. I don't think he's ever going to. In some ways he feels safer with actual malevolent spirits that definitely mean him harm, because he knows they can't hurt him the same way Mom and Dad can." Emotionally or physically. "It's not healthy growing up and hearing your parents talking about how much they'd enjoy ripping apart beings like you 'molecule by molecule'."

Ran shuddered. Hearing it that way, it sounded like the ghosts weren't the scary ones in this scenario. And if Jazz-san was right about Danny not being able to explain things well, Shinichi might have no idea of that added complication. "So what now?" 

"The first month to month and a half are going to be the roughest part. His body doesn't know what to do with its ectoplasm, and will have trouble regulating its use. This results in ghost powers that randomly go off, especially in time of high emotions. After that he'll be able to control it more, no more passing out, for example, since his powers will simply fail rather than push him past his limits. Or accidental power usage. Once he hits the two month mark, he'll be fine, it'll just be a bit awkward until then."

Two months. She could keep it together for two months. “Is there any way to wake him up?” She asked. It helped being told this was normal, but not as much as him waking up would.

“We always let Danny sleep it off, although…” Jazz trailed off as she thought for a moment. “Would you be willing to let Danny hold him?”

“Why?” Ran was loath to let Shinichi go, and moreso to Danny, who was the reason Shinichi was turning into a yūrei hanyou in the fist place. 

“His body needs ectoplasm right now, and barring letting it generate naturally in his cells, Danny’s the only other source we have.” Jazz explained calmly. 

It made sense and she hated it. She held Conan a little closer and almost screamed as Danny suddenly changed in a burst of white light. The last thing she wanted to do was hand Conan over but…

But she’d seen those green eyes and white hair before. On Shinichi. Danny and Shinichi were the same, being afraid of one would be being afraid of the other, and she couldn’t bring herself to be afraid of Shinichi like that.

She reluctantly handed him over. Danny cradled him and his arms began to glow green.

Before she could change her mind, Shinichi’s eyes blinked open and he looked around blankly. 

~

He felt...not warm, but it felt warm. Like in the laying in a sunbeam way, or being cozy in a blanket on a cold morning. But it wasn’t a temperature thing. It was weird.

He opened his eyes and saw Danny in his ghostly state. “Why are you holding me?” he asked dryly.

“More I’m recharging you.” Danny answered back in the same tone. He raised a glowing hand. “You used up all of your ectoplasm and knocked yourself out. Now that you’re back with us, hopefully your sister can calm down a bit. Also what’s a shinichi, she keeps using that word.”

His sister? Wait, he couldn’t mean… “Ran?”

“Who ran?” Danny asked, but Conan ignored him and looked around.

“Shinichi,” she said in a tone that meant the jig was well and truly up.

“Seriously, what does that mean?” Danny grumbled.

Conan gulped and flickered for a moment.

“Nope, gonna need you to stop that.” Danny chided him. “I know you can’t really help it at this point, but you’re still low on power.”

Conan was only half listening to him, half to the one person in the roof he didn’t know. “Invisibility and Intangibility tend to trigger as a fear response, and if he’s like Danny, he’s going to be on the verge of both of those until he’s more settled.” The young woman then turned to him. “Hello Conan, my name is Fenton Jazz. I’m Danny’s older sister and I’m here to hopefully explain things a little better.”

~

"Now keep in mind, the science of this isn't my main area of expertise, but between listening to my parents ramble my whole life, and helping Danny for the last two years-” Jazz began. She’d gone into full lecture mode. Ran and Agasa were sitting on the couch with Haibara between them, and Conan between Ran and a once more human Danny.

“- I've picked up a few things. Now mind you some of this will be theoretical, but I'll let you know when those things come up and - Danny are you falling asleep?" The last part was said in English.

"I don't speak Japanese Jazz, I'm not going to get anything from your lecture because I can't understand a word of it. Yesterday sucked and Vlad could be doing something at any moment, plus I was just used as a human battery. Lemme rest."

She rolled her eyes. "Ignoring my brother, let's go back to what makes a ghost." 

"Death." Said Haibara bluntly. 

"Yes, but also no. While the death of a living thing is certainly the most common way ghosts are formed, not all deaths created ghosts, nor are all ghosts the result of something dying. The real answer is ectoplasm.” 

“A living being is made up of two parts, a body and soul. Bodies are well documented, souls less so. They're not physical and made up of what I'm going to call, for lack of a better term, spiritual energy. When a living being dies usually the soul passes over or dissipates - we've got nothing to help figure that out so we're not dwelling on it. But very rarely it doesn't. Instead the spiritual energy in the soul is converted to ectoplasm and the being becomes a ghost." 

"Unlike spiritual energy, Ectoplasm is..." Jazz faltered for a word. "It's more in your face. Where the soul can't be seen, ectoplasm can't help but express itself. It can be solid or ephemeral, and can mimic any state of matter. It's potential can be almost limitless, however the potential in each individual ghost is limited."

"All ghosts have a core, which is a bit to a ghost what a soul is to a living being. Though it's a part of them, it can't be seen or extracted." Her parents had tried, which she didn’t like dwelling on. "But is ineffably a part of them. The core also functions a bit like a nucleus, as it defines what a ghost’s focus is, what powers they have, and their inherent nature. As a ghost's appearance tends to be a reflection of their self image, that can change over time. But the only way to alter a ghost’s core is by forcing them to experience something literally soul shattering. This...it's something that will never end well and that's all I'll say on the matter." She'd seen it happen to Danny in another timeline and she'd never let anyone go through that if she could help it. 

"There are two more kinds of ghosts, but they're not what you want me to be here for, so I'm just going to touch on them briefly. Throw-offs are ghosts that are created by the will of other ghosts, formed of their own ectoplasm but as an independent being. Penelope Spectra, the ghost of an abusive psychologist, created a throw-off named Bertrand to act as her personal assistant. Likewise the self-styled 'Captain Youngblood', the ghost of someone who died as a small child created a parrot to act as both playmate and parental figure. Both of them can shapeshift to better suit their creator's needs, though without a larger sample size I can't say if that's a coincidence or a common trait of Throw-offs."

"The final kind are what I call Spontaneous. The limbo ghosts tend to be stuck in unless they find a way to the world of the living seems to be made primarily of ectoplasm and sometimes unlife just happens. This can range from barely sentient blobs, such as ectopusses, to beings of comparable human intelligence, like Skulker, whom you met yesterday. But for now let's move on to the rarest ectoplasmic beings, which is what you actually need to learn about. Halfas, or as you called them _yūrei hanyou_."

Jazz motioned to the small boy sitting between Ran and the now snoozing Danny. "Conan-kun here is the fourth to ever exist, as far as we can tell. We only have minor observational data from the first, the third was a special case, so mostly what I'm going on is Danny, since he and his friends have been cataloging data practically since day one." 

Agasa nodded, pleased they had thought to do so. 

"So yūrei hanyou are usually created by a living person being ground zero for a rift between worlds opening due to ectoplasm being charged with an incredibly powerful electrical current. And by which I mean ‘could kill several people in seconds’ powerful. Thankfully the ectoplasm changes it enough that the person exposed enters what I call the 'Schrödinger State'." 

"Alive and dead at the same time." Conan said darkly. 

Jazz nodded. "The person's spiritual energy is fully converted to ectoplasm without the soul separating from their body. This gives you access to a ghost form. In addition, as I explained to Ran-san earlier, the mitochondria in each cell are producing ectoplasm instead of it’s normal adenosine triphosphate, which allows you to manifest ghost powers in your human form. But your body hasn’t learned how to regulate it yet. That's why you're unstable right now. Not helping that is because of the energized ectoplasm that creates them, yūrei hanyou are by default some of the most powerful ghosts in existence."

"Really?" Ran asked with some trepidation. She didn't like hearing about ghosts, though the more lecture-like nature of Jazz as opposed to Sonoko's scary stories made it more palpable. 

"As I said, despite what living in Amity Park might have you believe, becoming a ghost is really really rare. Much less than 1% of people who die become ghosts and those who do are mostly weak enough that if they make it to the land of the living they can't be seen, heard, or affect anything. Most ghosts need to find a way to siphon energy from elsewhere to boost themselves enough to do anything. Some feed off human emotions, others find a nexus point saturated in ectoplasmic energy. But the process can take years to decades depending on the abundance of the source. And that level of power, the type that takes decades to achieve. That's your starting point."

"Power absorbed through the environment or emotions is reliable, but temporary. They would constantly need to recharge to maintain a steady output." Hence Spectra's need to feed the misery that fed her. Without a flowing source her power consumption far outstripped what her core was capable of. "That's not to say ghosts can't become more powerful in their own right, just that it's not a quick process." 

"Here's where we're entering some of the more theoretical stuff, namely how Ghosts can permanently raise their power. One theory is self awareness. Ghosts who are the result of dead humans tend to be composed of memories and emotions from when they were alive. And that in better understanding those, they deepen their own abilities. I won't say it's untrue, but as many ghosts wouldn't have the patience for it, it would be at least highly uncommon." 

"Some, shall we say, rather biased individuals believe ghosts can strengthen themselves through human suffering. They are **wrong**. While ghosts can feed off human emotions, including negative ones, as we established before it's a temporary fix. Then we get to the theory I have the most faith in. Obsession fulfillment." 

" _ **What**_ fulfillment?" Conan asked, startled.

Jazz winced. She was used to this part being common knowledge. "I mentioned ghosts tend to be made of emotions and memories. Usually there's something tying it all together into a drive. This drive, usually referred to as a fixation or obsession, is central to the ghost's being and usually forms their identity to a greater degree." 

"It's...easier for yūrei hanyou. It's there, but more of a compulsion than an all consuming drive. Something they can choose to ignore, but it won't necessarily be easy to do." 

"So I'm going to develop one of these?" Conan's voice was small. 

Ran snorted. " _Going_ to? You've been obsessed with mysteries and mystery solving since at least kindergarten. I really doubt there's going to be a noticeable difference."

"Going back to before,” Jazz continued, though it would be cute if Conan-kun’s thing was solving mysteries to be like his father, “it's my personal theory that the best way for ghosts to grow their core is by successfully doing whatever their fixation is focused on. It also explains the growth difference between Vlad and Danny." 

Conan had been looking like he was halfway between sulking and being relieved, but he shot straight up at the mention of their culprit. "How so?" 

"Vlad's fixation is about having things. Once he had his powers stable, it was easy for him to just take whatever he wanted through force or trickery. He's only been active twenty some years, but his power levels had risen to a degree it takes most ghosts centuries to obtain. Talking with other ghosts I've been able to chart a pretty steady growth - until two years ago." 

Conan raised an eyebrow at Jazz's self satisfied smile. "What happened two years ago?" 

"Vlad found three things he couldn't obtain through money or power. Ownership of the Green Bay Packers, since they can't be owned by an individual by their charter. The love of his college sweetheart, since Mom has standards. And for Danny to love him like a father and hate our actual Dad. Don't think I have to explain why that's not happening. But because of those three things, he wasn't getting what he wanted. He tried to get them, but it didn't strengthen him since he never actually succeeded." 

"Danny's fixation is-" Jazz rolled her eyes fondly, "- being a hero. He's driven to help people who need help, even putting his personal safety at risk. It's something he sadly gets to indulge in often, sometimes multiple times a day. As a result Danny's growth has eclipsed Vlad to the point where he's almost caught up to Vlad's core power level in a mere two years." 

It was good to know there was a strong chance Danny could supersede Vlad in not too much time, at least on one playing field, but that brought up a new worry. "So if my thing is solving mysteries, and I solve them fairly frequently, this is going to get worse?"

"Worse is a bad way to think about it." Jazz said gently. "I won't say parts of it aren't going to suck, especially for the next month or so, but it's not all bad. However illogical they may be, powers are useful as long as you have control, and that's something you can have with a bit of work. Can you honestly tell me there's no time being invisible would have been useful as a detective? Or walking through walls would have made an escape easier?" 

He didn't like how easily past examples filled his head. Heck, if he's been invisible when spying on Vodka that night, he wouldn't be three feet high now. "I still don't like it." 

"Neither did Danny at first. In fact he downright hated it. But now it's so much a part of him, I don't think he'd know what to do if he got back to normal." Honestly probably get himself badly hurt trying to protect other people. "Do you want me to keep going, or is that enough for one day? I know it's a lot." 

"If there's nothing vital, I think I'm good." He had more than enough to dwell on. 

"I don't know if Danny's mentioned this, but be aware around things meant to ward against spirits, they can be uncomfortable." Jazz advised. "Other than that you should be good." 

Ran sighed and glanced at her watch. "We should probably go home. Dad will be getting worried."

"You go. I think I should stay here until I'm a bit more stable." Conan winced, "Imagine trying to explain any of this to him. And it's not like I can hide it." As if to prove his point, he started to sink into the cushions. 

"Danny wake up!" Jazz said sharply. Danny shot awake and rolled forward, ready for a fight. Jazz simply pointed to where Conan was stuck in the couch. He rolled his eyes and turned his arms intangible to pull him out. "Would it be okay if my brother stays too? He can help Conan and act as a defense if Vlad tries to silence him again." 

"Certainly. There's not a lot of extra bed space but there's somewhere Shinichi and he can go if needed." Agasa said

“Who’s Shinichi?” Jazz asked.

“There’s that word again,” Danny muttered.

There were awkward looks abound, but no one answered either sibling. Jazz sighed. “Unless you have anymore questions, I’ll see you tomorrow Danny.”

Danny blinked. “Tomorrow? Aren’t I going to the hotel with you?”

Jazz rolled her eyes. “I just said you should stay with Conan to help him manage his powers and in case Vlad makes another attempt.”

That made sense but…”I’m guessing, like most of what you’ve been saying, you said it in Japanese. The language you know I don’t speak.” He grinned, knowing he had her.

Jazz stared at him a moment, then pinched her nose. “Point to you. I’m still heading out.”

“Wait,” Danny stopped her. “In your lecture did you mention Halfa’s regeneration ability?”

“No, and you really should start using yūrei hanyou, like they do.” Jazz advised.

Danny rolled his eyes. “And why would I want to change the only word I’ve had for myself for the past two years.”

“Do you really think all those ghosts would use a word to describe Vlad that he didn’t personally approve of?”

Okay, any distance between himself and Vald was good. “Okay, but seriously. Please tell her about yurry hanyo healing.”

“Yūrei hanyou,” Jazz corrected his pronunciation. “And they’ve all had to deal with a lot of new information at once. Non essential things-”

“It’s essential. Trust me.”

Danny looked so serious Jazz sighed and gave in. “Before I go, brother dearest wants me to go into a little more detail on one of the perks of being a yūrei hanyou, namely their healing capacity. Though not instantaneous, they do heal much faster than baseline humans and can recover completely from injuries humans never could without so much as a scar. I have a theory about how it’s related to their core, but that’s far from proven.”

Injuries...like heart scarring. Ran gave Danny a grateful look. “Thank you.” Both for telling her and...she may not have liked the idea of Shinichi becoming a weird ghost hybrid, but from what she’d been told earlier, it very well have saved his life.

Agasa and Ai shared a look of their own. They’d need confirmation but if that were true it would be a huge relief to both of them. Conan glanced around and read the reactions of everyone except for the honestly confused Jazz. “You told them.” He accused Agasa.

“Yes he did.” Ran confirmed. “And I’m glad he did. And- we can talk about this later.” It was obvious Danny and Jazz didn’t know the truth about Shinichi and it wasn’t her place to tell them. “But rest assured, we will.”

Conan gulped and his form flickered again, before vanishing completely from sight.

“It’s a good sign your ectoplasm is regenerating.” Jazz said. “That being said, it’s obvious there’s something you’re not telling us, so if you’re trying to keep other people from figuring it out, you need to be better about the fact that you’re hiding a secret. I won’t ask what it is, we understand better than most how life or death a secret can be. But at least one of your secrets isn’t just your own.” With that, she walked out.

Danny sighed heavily. “I really need to learn Japanese.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So fun fact, I handled the google translate by...using google translate and filtering each line through a few languages. Sadly it didn't get nearly so garbled as I had hoped, I think the worst of it being changing ectoplasm to ectoprism.


End file.
